.gamma.-Alkenyl-.gamma.-butyrolactones and .delta.-alkenyl-.delta.-valerolactones are present in nature and have proven useful as intermediates in organic synthesis. Many of these lactones are of keen biological interest. For example, some of the lactones are known to be odor-bearing components of many plants, and as such have found wide industrial use in the perfume industry. Certain lactones are also useful as solvents, paint removers, vapor sterilants, and disinfectants. It therefore can be seen that there is a continuing need for the development of processes of preparing these useful compounds by convenient and efficient syntheses.
It is a primary objective of the present invention to provide an improved one pot process for the preparation of many vinylic lactones.
A further object of the present invention is to prepare vinylic lactones from vinylic halides or triflates when reacted with unsaturated carboxylic acids.
A further objective of the present invention is to prepare vinylic lactones by a process which avoids the use of mercury salts, as used in an earlier reported process of the inventor, Larock et al., Tetrahedron Letters 1987, 28, 4977.
The method and manner of accomplishing each of the above objectives as well as others will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention which follows hereinafter.